Jury Awards $5.1 Million in Case Against DuPont
07 Juli 2016 - 12:20AM
Dow Jones News
COLUMBUS, Ohio —DuPont acted with malice by dumping
chemical-tainted water from its West Virginia plant into the Ohio
River, a federal jury said Wednesday in awarding $5.1 million in
compensatory damages to a man who developed cancer.
The jury will meet Thursday to begin deciding the amount of
punitive damages to be handed out.
There are 3,500 lawsuits alleging a link between illnesses and
the Wilmington, Del., chemical company's discharging of the
chemical C8 into the river.
The ill man, David Freeman, of Washington County, said he got
testicular cancer because of C8, which was used to make Teflon.
Mr. Freeman, 56 years old, alleged that residents along the
river suffered from C8 in tainted drinking water, which he blamed
for his sickness.
DuPont maintains there were only small amounts of C8 in drinking
water, not enough to be harmful. It declined to comment on the
verdict Wednesday.
In a regulatory filing Wednesday, Chemours Co.—formerly a part
of DuPont that was spun off last year—said the verdict would be
appealed. Chemours said DuPont was the named defendant in the case
and was directly liable for any judgment.
"In the event DuPont claims that it is entitled to
indemnification from Chemours as to some or all of the judgment,
Chemours retains its defenses to such claims," Chemours said in the
filing.
Shares of Chemours were hammered following the verdict
Wednesday, closing down 22% at $5.93. Shares of DuPont fell 1.8% to
close at $61.85.
Mr. Freeman's case is among the first ones to be heard. In one
now under appeal, jurors awarded $1.6 million to a woman who got
cancer.
A former spokeswoman for DuPont's Ohio River plant in
Parkersburg, W. Va., testified she never knew of any concerns about
C8 being dumped into the river when she told residents the water
was safe to drink.
An attorney for Mr. Freeman showed the DuPont spokeswoman, Dawn
Jackson, internal company documents and memos about concerns with
C8, many of which she said she had never seen before.
Nathan Becker contributed to this article
Copyright 2016 the Associated Press
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 06, 2016 18:05 ET (22:05 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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